Pages

'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.' - author Jackie French

Wednesday, 10 October 2018

Review: Heaven Sent

Heaven Sent was not the book I thought it was going to be.

But it was so much better!

Evie’s life isn’t easy. Her dad left to be with another, younger, woman when she was still a kid.

Her stepdad isn’t the kind of man she’d like to have as a father, and she’s been wearing a back brace every day for the last eighteen months to try and fix her scoliosis.

Her best friend, Paige, is everything she’s not. And while they are close and spend a lot of time together, Evie has always felt like an outsider.

Then a car crashes through her bedroom window and everything changes.

Gabe, the boy responsible for the crash, is mysterious and elusive.

At first Evie can’t even track him down, but then he starts appearing everywhere, seeming to know how to fix all of Evie’s problems and make her life better.

But Gabe has a lot of secrets, and even though Evie really likes him, she knows something is not quite right.

As she navigates her crazy life — abandonment issues, deadbeat stepdad, friendship rows and a not-so-well mother, Gabe is always there to support her. But then the pieces start to fall together, and when Evie discovers the truth, everything will fall apart.

Heaven Sent is real and relatable. It’s about genuine teenage life, not life as we sometimes fantasise it to be. The scenes are real and gritty and the language and dialogue is spot on.

It’s also filled with mystery and intrigue. Who is Gabe? Where did he come from? And why doesn’t he ever talk about himself?

As you approach the mid-way mark, the questions start coming in thick and fast, urging you on, page after page, until you’ve devoured the whole book to discover the truth.

I did not predict the ending, and it’s that kind of wonderful and most-perfect ending that makes you stop and think back over the entire book to make sense of everything that came before it.

It’s a little hard to place this one in a sub-genre because of its superb uniqueness. It’s got romantic themes, but it's not a romance-focused story. It has mysteries to uncover and truths to be found, but it’s not a typical mystery story either. It’s just really good YA fiction!

So if you’re looking for an unexpected and addictive read, I highly recommend Heaven Sent.